Introduction
A sore throat is one of the most common illnesses, which patients might identify and diagnose on their own. However, professional doctors are able to notice minor differences among the person’s symptoms that will give him or her particular clues to another diagnosis. The following paper is intended to cover differential diagnoses that can also be considered as a sore throat.
Criteria to Meet Before the Final Diagnosis
Before diagnosing any illness, it would be proper to interview a patient in order to understand his or her major complaints and discovered symptoms or issues. Moreover, it is essential to examine a person who seeks help because a doctor is more competent and can analyze various signs of illness or disease more accurately. As it was mentioned above, it is easy to confuse a regular sore throat with more crucial issues (El-Boghdadly, Bailey, & Wiles, 2016). Therefore, three differential diagnoses will be presented below to compare them.
A diphtheria infection can be easily confused with pharyngitis because of a sharp throat ache and does not show its specific symptoms during the first two weeks of its presence within an organism (First, 2014). Another type of sore throat differential diagnosis is called epiglottitis (Lean, Arnup, Danchin, & Steer, 2014). Its symptoms usually imply such biases as trouble swallowing, voice changes, and a harsh throat (Little et al., 2014). The third possible diagnosis is a scarlet fever infection, which influences a patient’s headache, red throat, and other similar issues.
Conclusion
Such illnesses as diphtheria, epiglottitis, scarlet fever, and other diagnoses with similar issues and symptoms can be identified as a sore throat. Usually, patients do not consider going to their doctors because this is not a crucial disease, and they think that they are able to cure it properly themselves. Unfortunately, there are many cases of false diagnoses that worsened a lot due to an inefficient treatment. Therefore, it is always necessary to visit doctors and to adhere to their pieces of advice.
References
El-Boghdadly, K., Bailey, C. R., & Wiles, M. D. (2016). Postoperative sore throat: A systematic review. Anaesthesia, 71(6), 706-717. Web.
First, M. B. (2014). DSM-5 handbook of differential diagnosis. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, a division of American Psychiatric Association.
Lean, W. L., Arnup, S., Danchin, M., & Steer, A. C. (2014). Rapid diagnostic tests for group A streptococcal pharyngitis: A meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 134(4), 771-781. Web.
Little, P., Stuart, B., Hobbs, F. D., Butler, C. C., Hay, A. D., Delaney, B.,… Moore, M. (2014). Antibiotic prescription strategies for acute sore throat: A prospective observational cohort study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 14(3), 213-219. Web.